it could be his birthday
by Tramontana Keeper
Summary: Erwin tries to celebrate Levi's birthday. Tries.


_Originally written for the "first birthday" prompt on the kinkmeme. _

_This is massively, stupidly fluffy. Sugar overdose. I hope you like. _

* * *

It was Levi's third mission outside the walls, and he can now safely say that he thinks people are making way to big of a deal of things.

Like the freaking out about no walls. Erwin had given him a serious talk about it beforehand, explaining he knew it was disconcerting at first to just see the horizon going on forever, over time he would acclimate, nervousness was nothing to be ashamed of, blah blah blah. Levi had listened politely, with only the minimum of foot-tapping, fingernail cleaning, and pointed sighting. Erwin finally got the hint, and told him with some annoyance _fine, get going_. The expression on his face clearly said that he expected Levi to freak out and come crying to him later.  
Ha. Fat chance.

He had gone out, took a good look at the horizon thing, and promptly dismissed it as unimpressive. Or, well, not actually unimpressive, it was kind of cool, but no way he was admitting it to anybody else, especially not Erwin.  
For that matter, Erwin had told him that nobody expected him to kill a titan on his first mission; just coming back alive was fine.

Levi killed two. On principle.

So now he was back from his third mission, and Erwin could stop babying him, thank you very much. During training, he had done his best to get the other cadets to leave him alone, with biting wit ("out of my way, fucking shitstain") and the occasional gentle nudge (to the face. With his boot) when things got physical, and somehow they _still_ hadn't realized he was a force to be reckoned with. Until now, when he'd done four solo kills on three missions, and everybody was fucking terrified.

Everybody but his stupid captain, that is, who came to greet them on their return. He looked pleased as punch when he heard about Levi's kill, and actually ruffled his hair, much to Levi's chagrin. Seriously, he had taken down –well, not bigger, because Erwin was built like a closet, and not necessarily _stronger_, because Erwin was really strong – but he had definitely taken down guys for less. And titans, now, but that was different.

"Levi, come see me in my office," Erwin said, when he'd finished fawning over him and mussing his cloak.

Seriously? "It's _dinner time_," Levi said. "I haven't eaten all day. You may be a walking food storage, but not all of us are."

Erwin frowned. "I'm pretty sure you just implied I'm fat."

"Yep."

"_Sir_," Erwin corrected. "I know you know that word. You've got to get used to using it."

"I could use it if I wanted to."

"Levi…"

Levi rolled his eyes. Seriously, if Erwin was any more uptight about this stupidity he'd probably be constipated. He was probably constipated_anyway_. "Yep, sir."

Erwin gave him the look Levi was starting to recognize as his 'what am I going to do with you' look. Levi actually kind of liked that one.

He finished stabling his horse and headed for the mess hall.

"Levi!"

Damn. He had hoped Erwin might have forgotten. No dinner. He dragged his feet pointedly all the way up to Erwin's office, until he scuffed his toe on a stair, leaving an unseemly scrape.

Shit.

Levi knelt, licked his thumb, and rubbed it over the leather, hoping it would fade.

"Levi, what are you doing?"

"I scraped my shoe, hang on." Shit, it was still there. He was going to have to polish his boots now, and until he got it clean, he was going to have to walk through_the entire base_ with the stupid scratch on it.

"Nobody can see that," Erwin said, starting to sound impatient.

"I can."

"Polish it later, then."

Maybe if he just…

"That's an _order_."

"I thought we had to maintain our uniforms at all times." Levi straightened up. "It says so in that stupid rulebook you gave me. Aren't you proud of me trying to be a proper soldier?"

"You ignore _every single thing_ in that book except for what has to do with cleanliness. I don't think you're trying to be a proper soldier."

"I did read the whole thing, though. I don't think anybody else has. Did you know that it says that correct mess hall etiquette requires _two_ forks per person? I've been eating in that hall since you dragged me here, and not once have I received my second fork."

"What would you do with another fork?"

"Pawn it." Hah, score for him. Erwin groaned and grabbed him by the arm, ready to drag him bodily up the stairs. It always came to that in the end. Erwin was so _grabby_, seriously.

"But my shoe!" Levi protested. He'd dig in his heels, but that might do _more_ damage.

"You want to trade with me?" Erwin offered in exasperation, which was just _silly_. Levi's boots would never fit him, and Erwin's would fit him about as well as a canoe would. Still, he made a show of looking them over, then turned up his nose.

"No. They're dirtier than mine."

Erwin looked to be inches away from banging his head against the wall.

"How do you even manage that?" Levi continued. "You've been on base all day! I can see you've been training, that mud there is definitely from the training ground, and looks like you sneaked into the kitchen at some point…"

He continued on in this vein all the way to Erwin's office, while Erwin did his absolute best to ignore him. He was failing, though. Levi could tell by the twitching. When someone Erwin's size twitched it was like a fucking earthquake, absolutely hilarious.

Damn it, he was still hungry.

They stepped into Erwin's office. Levi looked around, while Erwin went over to muck with something at his desk.

"You cleaned up in here." Surprisingly, it was actually half-decent.

"I got tired of your snide remarks. And of you picking my lock and sneaking in here to alphabetize my papers. I'd say I need to have you training harder if you still have enough energy to sneak around, but I don't think it's _possible_ to train you harder." Erwin got this smug smirk, as if it was all thanks to him. Heck, he made a point to drag every single one of the higher-ups who had ever said anything bad about Levi to watch him train, while waxing eloquent over his achievements. It was sort of cute, Levi had to admit, and since making authority figures eat crow was one of his greater joys in life, he cooperated.

Erwin finished fumbling with whatever, and placed a small carton on his desk. "Levi," he said, "it has come to my attention that today is your birthday."

Levi furrowed his eyebrows. "It is?"

Erwin looked slightly less certain now. "It says so on your papers."

Oh. "I made that shit up." He waved a hand airily. "I have no idea when my birthday is. You told me to write something, so I did. Funny, I don't even remember what I wrote – so it's today, huh?"

"I see." Erwin looked down, and Levi could see the start of disappointment, carefully hidden.

Oh _come on_, had Erwin seriously gone to the trouble of checking his file for his birthday, and _remembering it_, just so he could say happy birthday – which he still hadn't said, but it was definitely implied –  
Erwin was way too fucking nice to him.

"I mean," Levi said quickly. "Maybe it_is_ my birthday, right? There's a one-in-365 chance that it's today. And today was much less shitty than most days, it would be nice to have a birthday. I even killed a titan, that's gotta be a good sign. I can go kill another one if you want, and that'll be even better. I'm definitely getting birthday feelings."

Good, now Erwin was back to looking mushy, and nobody could do mushy like Erwin with his baby-blues. If only he could bottle that shit and sell it, the Survey Corps would have tons of money, and enough for Levi to stash away some on the side.

"So you're definitely feeling like it's your birthday," Erwin said, and there, now he was smiling. Much better.

"Yep. Sir," he tacked on magnanimously.

"In that case, Happy Birthday, Levi." And he took the small box on his desk and pushed it towards Levi, who stared. "Go ahead, open it."

No fucking way. Levi looked at the box, then back to Erwin, and from anybody else he'd think this was some kind of joke. He just wasn't the type of person who got little boxes for their birthday (or at all). The only presents he had ever gotten were poisonous, pointy, or both, and usually aimed his way.

He took a step closer, glancing at Erwin once more for confirmation, and Erwin nudged the box towards him again. His expression was somewhere between mushy and smug self-satisfaction. Levi picked up the white box, noting how light it was, and knew better than to turn upside down something unknown. Carefully, keeping his hands from trembling, he undid the complicated paper clasp on top.

The box fell open to reveal a small cake. A tiny fucking cake with frosting, the kind of thing he had only seen on the tables of the wealthy. The kind of cake he had stolen once, but had never thought to actually receive properly, as a gift. It even had a little candle stuck in it. The candle was fucking _crooked_ and for once Levi didn't care, because Erwin had given him a tiny little cake.

"Levi?" Erwin said gently.

"It's got little fucking frosting _flowers_," Levi blurted. "Pink little flowers. On my cake. And a candle. Are you gonna light the candle? Woulda been stupid to light it before, the box would have burned. Little candle." He tried to rein in his mouth, but it was a lost cause. "You got me a cake."

Erwin lit the candle, the flame dancing cheerfully above the confection. Levi stared at the flame, then back up at Erwin, who had ramped up the mushy to previously unseen heights.

"Here." Erwin held out his handkerchief, which Levi snatched. He didn't even check if it was dirty before blowing his nose noisily on it.

"You blow out the candle, and make a wish," Erwin said. "At least, that's the tradition. You can do whatever you like, it's your birthday cake."

Levi wiped at his nose, and used a clean corner of the handkerchief to mop at his eyes. He looked at Erwin, down at the cake, and made his wish.

The cake was definitely the best thing he had ever eaten, and he insisted on sharing it with Erwin. And when Erwin wasn't paying attention, he grabbed what was left of the candle stub, wrapped it in his own handkerchief, and slipped it into his pocket.


End file.
